De Blasio to lead ‘Hospitals Not Condos’ rally at former St. Vincent’s site, with Belafonte, Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, others

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Public Advocate Bill de Blasio being arrested last month during a protest to keep Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital from closing.

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | At noon on Mon., Aug. 19, mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio will lead a “Hospitals Not Condos” rally at the site of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital, at the northwest corner of Seventh and Greenwich Aves.

De Blasio, who is currently the city’s public advocate, will be joined by legendary singer / activist Harry Belafonte, “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon, actresses Rosie Perez and Susan Sarandon and de Blasio’s wife, author / speechwriter Chirlane McCray.

According to a source close to the de Blasio campaign, the candidate will not call for a restoration of a full-service hospital on the Lower West Side — but will call for a comprehensive restoration of healthcare citywide wherever it is needed.

In a recent interview with The Villager, de Blasio declared that St. Vincent’s “absolutely could have been saved,” but that there was simply a lack of political will.

The bankrupt hospital closed in 2010 under the crushing weight of a $1 billion debt.

Today, a gaping space is all that remains where some of the largest towers of the former historic Catholic hospital, on Seventh Ave. between 11th and 12th Sts., once stood, following the demolition of a huge swath of the medical complex.

What’s left of the former hospital’s gutted shell — with the addition of new construction — is being developed by The Rudin Organization / Global Holdings into The Greenwich Lane, 200 high-end condo residences, including five buildings, plus five single-family townhouses on 11th St.

The units will sell for prices ranging from $2 million up to $20 milli0n.

In March 2012, the number of the development’s planned units dropped by 100 — from 450 to 350 — and has since dropped by another 150 residences. There will be 10 separate addresses. The buildings will all be connected by a “lush, private, central garden.”

The complex’s name refers to what Greenwich Ave. — one of Manhattan’s oldest streets — was known as until 1843.